Tennessee Wildfire Death Toll Now At 7, Biggest Fire In 100 Years!

A wildfire created a disaster in a famous American tourist town. A part of Tennessee was caught in a great fire, possibly the greatest in the last 100 years, which completely stopped life in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. At least seven are dead, and hundreds have fled their homes leaving everything but the clothes on their back. Material damage is enormous, and it will take some time and effort before everything is returned to normal.

USA today reports of the Tennessee wildfire stating that there are dead are hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes on Monday night. The cause is a huge wildfire in the area around The Great Smoky Mountains. The center Gatlinburg’s tourist area has been particularly damaged. Emergency workers, more than 200 firefighters from Memphis and even the National Guard participated in the efforts to fight the flames. They managed to put the fire down, and the people started to come back to estimate the damage.

The New York Times cites Gov. Bill Haslam is saying that this is the biggest fire in the last 100 years in the state of Tennessee. More than 14000 people have left Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and other parts of Sevier County, with additional 10000 left without power. Some of the residents even filmed the flaming disaster and shared their videos online as a testimony of this scourge.

Live Science offers a possible explanation of the cause of the fire finding the culprits in heavy drought and wind. They are saying that smaller fires were symptomatic through the whole year, but no one could predict a fire of this scale. High atmospheric pressure has kept the rain away in the bay throughout the whole summer, and low precipitation and other parameters could bring the driest year on the record so far.

Although wildfire activities were above normal, firefighters and other squads had kept them under control, until Monday night when a fire started at Chimney Tops, a popular hiking destination. It was later brought down and around the surface of 500 acres by strong winds from the Southeast. Some rain fell on Tuesday at 7 am but the officials are expecting more rain to keep the situation under control in the next days.

A Recent update by CNN says that death toll is now at 7.